Friday, June 26, 2015

Forty years ago, on an earthen floor and between adobe walls, the Misa Campesina Nicaragüense [Nicaraguan Peasant Mass] rang out for the first time. The Church and the government thought it heretical, blasphemous, and dangerous. Both banned it. Now Carlos Mejía Godoy, its author, will ask Pope Francis to lift that veto.

And there they all were. A white haired and bushy bearded priest officiated the Mass. The peasants anchored their boats and pangas around the island. The mazurkas rhythms echoed, Nica sound, sound of bulls, the “miskitu” and five musicians sang at the beginning of the rite: "Vos sos el Dios de los pobres/ El Dios humano y sencillo/ El Dios que sufre en la calle/ El Dios del rostro curtido..." ["You're the God of the poor / The human and simple God / The God who suffers in the street / The God of weathered face ..."]

A small plane was flying over the shingled church, but inside the Misa Campesina didn't stop. It was a Sunday during Holy Week, says poet and sculptor Ernesto Cardenal. In 1974 or 1975, vaguely recalls Carlos Mejia Godoy, its composer and singer, with the musical group Los de Palacagüina. "Spies from the Somoza government also came and the plane was still there, threatening us from the air, almost about to fall on us," remembers Ernesto Cardenal, the former priest who was also an adviser with his brother Fernando Cardenal in the creation of verses for this Mass.

Many people came that day, says Cardenal, from different places, but especially from San Carlos, "especially the young people." "All the guys were there. The future combatants who would later take the San Carlos barracks: Felipe Peña, Alejandro Guevara, Laureano Mairena, Elvis Chavarría."

Mejía Godoy finished shaping the refrains on that piece of earth on the waters of Gran Lago. "Solentiname was the little laboratory where we were putting together that brainteaser. That's where the Misa Campesina was sung for the first time."

The Nicaraguan Bishops Conference, presided in those days by Monseñor Manuel Salazar y Espinoza, reacted against the songs. On November 9, 1976, it decreed "the non-approval of the Misa Campesina because it is not considered liturgical song" as the Church published in a communique, according to the study Canto Popular de Nicaragua by Francisco “Pancho” Cedeño that is soon to be published, says Roberto Sánchez, the book's editor.

The great "sin" of the Misa Campesina was the boldness that Carlos Mejía Godoy wrote into the lyrics, in Cardenal's opinion. "It seemed heretical," he says, because it put God as a worker in the street. "A God who sweats, a God who is Christ the Worker. And that is Christ himself, it's the Biblical Jesus. It seems like outlandishness or blasphemy but no, it's talking about God himself incarnated in man," explains the poet, who at that time wrote an explanatory document for the Bishops Conference defending the texts. No answer ever came.

Even so, the ban remained. Carlos Mejia Godoy recalls that the Vatican itself issued a veto and the state also forbade it. According to Ernesto Cardenal, Archbishop Miguel Obando y Bravo also forbade it. "And it's still prohibited today," he reiterates. And although these conflicts did not stop the spread of the songs that sounded later in Bolivia, Guatemala, Peru, Spain, the United States and many other countries, this year, Carlos Mejia, on the 40th anniversary of its creation, is going to ask Pope Francis for an audience so that the Misa Campesina Nicaragüense can resound again under the church atria.

PURE NICA HEART

In those days, Carlos Mejía Godoy was already a thirty-year-old. He had already recorded two albums -- Cantos a Flor de Pueblo and La Calle de en Medio. He had studied three years to be a priest in the National Seminary. And he had become disenchanted with Christianity because of the "monastic" training in which he had been taught since childhood.

The Spanish priest José de la Jara, his music teacher in seminary, urged him to participate in the creation of a Nicaraguan popular Mass on leaving the seminary. "In those days, national Masses were being written everywhere. There was a Salvadoran one, a Honduran one, and Father de la Jara created the Nicaraguan one," comments Ernesto Cardenal. Mejía Godoy wasn't involved in that Mass because "in conscience I still wasn't clear about my position as a Christian," he explains. "I just told him a little later, never imagining that it would really be so."

The Misa Popular Nicaragüense began to be sung in all the Nicaraguan churches in 1968, historian Roberto Sánchez points out. "Father de la Jara had left his role as a teacher to found San Pablo Apóstol parish in Colonia 14 de Septiembre and they put out a record with those songs that had the Mass on one side and on the other side, Ernesto Cardenal's psalms sung by William Agudelo," says the historian.

"He (Father José de la Jara) gave birth to the Nicaraguan people's churches and that's the experience on which I worked, later," says Godoy, who saw a potential movement to fight for the poor, which originated in the eastern neighborhoods of Managua "and so yes I became enthusiastic; that Mass served as a parameter for me and I started planning something different, a little deeper."

"That was the main antecedent of the Misa Campesina Nicaragüense. The Misa Popular was traditional, but still pointed to the identity of Nicaragua," explains Wilmor López, journalist and cultural researcher, who believes that was the base on which Carlos Mejia began the composition and arrangement of 11 songs intended to accompany the church liturgy of Nicaragua.

"The difference with the Misa Popular was perhaps in its musical rhythms and its song lyrics. The latter incorporated the instruments and rhythms of mazurkas, sounds of bulls, a Nica sound, songs with the harmony of Miskito songs and new creations, like the meditation song, known as "Canto de los Pájaros" ["Song of the Birds"], by Pablo Martinez Téllez of León," López says. But the unexpected leap of this creation "was taking the living word of the gospel in the mouth of peasants and workers," says Mejia Godoy, who was given the task of gathering -- tape recorder in hand from the four corners of the country for more than a year -- what people understood from the gospel.

"When you say 'Christ have mercy, Christ take pity on us', what are you thinking?," Mejía Godoy would ask people. He says that thus, with that curiosity, he went to the ministry in the north, where pastor Gregorio Smutko, affectionately known as "Goyito", assigned him to Anselmo Nixon, a seminarian in the area so he would sing the Miskitu Lawana, an anonymous hymn of the Moravian Church. "Because I didn't want the Mass to just be from the Pacific but I wanted it to be from all of Nicaragua, the guy came to Managua to sing it, as I wanted it to be, in the original language," says the songwriter, who also went to the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, to later come to a stop in Solentiname.

The most important thing about this Mass, says Carlos Mejía, is that it not only contains the rhythms that were already sounding from end to end in Nicaragua, but also the words. "Those of the workers, those of the peasant. It's slang, escaliche [Nicaraguan urban slang], words derived from Nahuatl. It's the fruits, the birds, the flowers. Nicaragua is alive there."

RELIGION, PERSECUTION, AND CONFLICT

That small plane that was flying very low over the church of Solentiname the first day that this mass was sung on that archipelago, was only a warning. Those who attended the celebration heard a huge noise, but the harassment would go beyond a document issued by the Bishops Conference and that noise against the music would be heard many other times.

A large opening Mass was planned that would be attended by over a thousand people and would be in Managua. They chose to celebrate it in Plaza de los Cabros in the Open Tres neighborhood, now Ciudad Sandino, but the celebration hadn't started when the National Guard made a massive eviction. "At rifle butt, with shots and tear gas they kicked everyone out. Carlos Mejia himself was put in a military vehicle," recounts Roberto Sánchez. All because of different lyrics -- "Lyrics that called to liberation and Somoza wasn't going to allow those expressions, anything that smacked of freedom clashed with the dictatorship and the Misa Campesina is a liberation song," says the historian.

The day after that thwarted premiere, the Mass was already being sung in the four corners of the country, says Mejia Godoy, that this "was a vast wave of spirituality and love for Nicaragua." Sanchez says it was the music itself that won the people's love and imposed itself over Church measures. "It became popular religiosity, even when it couldn't be celebrated in any church officially."

The judicial vicar of the Archdiocese of Managua, Julio Arana, recalls the situation very differently with regard to the Misa Campesina. According to him, there was just one conflict in the eastern neighborhoods of Managua, in a chapel where "some people wanted the Misa Campesina to be sung every Sunday at all the Masses." In some years it was allowed to be sung, said the priest, and this served to attract people to an experience of the Eucharist "as something folkloric, but you must understand that the songs of Carlos Mejia Godoy's Mass were responding to a reality of the times, a specific political situation and in the context of liberation theology. But the Church has never forbidden singing the Misa Campesina. There is no document that expressly forbids it," says Arana.

Yet according to the memories of those involved, only some "progressive" priests allowed this Mass. Today parts of it are sung in some churches, but there are sectors that still don't allow it, says Sanchez. "I think if Carlos Mejia Godoy wants to make that request to Pope Francis, it's his right. I think the Vatican is going to say that you have to go to the commission of the Bishops Conference and in this case, the liturgical commission so that any kind of theological errors that these songs might contain is evaluated," Father Arana says, for his part.

"ANTES QUE NAZCA EL DÍA..."

Carlos Mejía Godoy is the main author, but other musicians also collaborated. Here is the structure and the contributions made:

Entrance hymn: compilations by Carlos Mejía in the Popular Sound Workshops.

Kyrie: is a Greek word meaning mercy. The song is a Segovian mazurka with Jinotegan music from La Perra Renca.

Gloria: contains the sound of bulls known as La Mama Ramona, the music was played by the popular band of Diriá under Professor Teodoro Ríos.

Credo: was composed with parts of the testimonies that were given after the gospel [at Masses] officiated by Ernesto Cardenal and were a sort of dialogue with the peasants.

Offertory: has parts of a Segovian mazurca -- La Chancha Flaca.

Miskitu Lawana: is an anonymous song from the Moravian Church; it was interpreted by Anselmo Nixon.

Meditation song: known as "El Canto de los Pájaros" ["Song of the Birds"], it is a creation of Carlos Martínez Téllez, El Guadalupano.

The Sanctus: the music is a version taken from the musicians called Los Soñadores de Saraguasca, from the Tomatoya district in Jinotega.

Closing hymn: it was the last song to be composed in the popular sound workshops.

ABOUT THE MASS

The Misa Campesina was evaluated by Nicaraguan and foreign theologians from different religious denominations, among them Catholics, Evangelicals, and Baptists.

Carlos Mejía Godoy, according to Julio Arana, followed the structure proposed in the Roman Missal after the Second Vatican Council.

It has been translated into six languages and is still sung in many parts of the world.

Father Arana defines this composition as "something that was not contrary, but they aren't strictly liturgical songs."

Full text of the Misa Campesina Nicaragüense and other Central American folk Masses. (PDF)

We don't know her name. She's an unimportant woman, lost in the midst of the crowd that is following Jesus. She doesn't dare speak to him like Jairo, the head of the synagogue, who managed to get Jesus to go to his house. She could never have that luck.

Nobody knows that she's a woman marked by a secret illness. The masters of the Law have taught her to see herself as an "impure" woman while she has bleeding. She has spent many years looking for a healer but no one has been able to cure her. Where will she be able to find the health she needs to live with dignity?

Many people among us are going through similar experiences. Humiliated by secret wounds that nobody knows about, without the strength to confide in anyone about their "illness", they are seeking help, peace, and consolation without knowing where to find it. They feel guilty when often they are just victims.

Good people who feel unworthy to come forward to received Christ during Communion, pious Christians who have been suffering in an unhealthy way because they were taught to see everything related to sex as dirty, degrading and sinful, believers who, at the end of their life, don't know how to break the chain of supposedly sacrilegious confessions and communions...Will they never be able to know peace?

According to the story, the sick woman "heard about Jesus" and sensed that this was someone who could extract the "impurity" from her body and from her entire life. Jesus doesn't talk about worthiness or unworthiness. His message speaks of love. His being radiates a healing force.

The woman looks for her own way to meet Jesus. She doesn't feel strong enough to look him in the eye -- she approaches from behind. She's ashamed to tell him about her illness -- she will act silently. She can't touch him physically -- she will just touch his cloak. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter one bit. To be clean, that great trust in Jesus is enough.

He says so himself. This woman must not be ashamed before anyone. What she has done isn't bad. It's an act of faith. Jesus has his ways for curing secret wounds and tells those who seek him: "Daughter, son, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and health."

Tuesday, June 23, 2015

The concept of integral ecology is "the focal point of the theoretical and practical construction of Laudato Si'. I fear that it might not be understood by the great majority, mentally colonized just by the anthropocentric discourse of environmentalism, dominant in the media and unfortunately in the official discourse of governments and international institutions like the UN. As the new paradigm suggests, we all form a large and complex whole," says the theologian and writer.

"The vision of integral ecology is systemic; it integrates everything into one great whole in which we move and have our being. The Pope makes this relationship connection of all with all derive from a theological fact. The Trinitarian God is essentially an eternal simultaneous relationship between the three divine persons. If the Triune God is relationship, then everything in the universe is also relationship," says Leonardo Boff when analyzing, in an interview with IHU On-Line via email, Pope Francis' encyclical letter Laudato Si' about the care of the common home, published this morning, 6-18-2015.

According to the theologian, for Pope Francis, "the North American motto -- one world - one empire -- isn't valid. But one world and one common project."

Leonardo Boff points out that the "Pope is using the methodology that he himself explicitly included in the Aparecida document -- see, judge, act and celebrate. This method has the advantage of always starting from below, from the specific realities, from the real challenges, not from doctrines from which deductions are made, usually abstract and not very incisive when referred to the issues raised."

And he remembers a phrase of St. Thomas Aquinas: "Error in the knowledge of the world can lead us to error in the knowledge of God. The sciences in their way serve the Lord of all things..."

"The value of this encyclical," he continues, "isn't measured only by what it proposes, but by the teaching of the other bishops around the world. This is also a novelty of this pontificate, so innovative and surprising in many respects."

He concludes by recalling "Chesterton's humorous phrase: we're all in the same boat, and we're all seasick. Not everybody. Certainly not Pope Francis."

Leonardo Boff is a theologian, philosopher, and author of a huge body of work on environmental themes. Of that work, we would cite Cry of the Earth, Cry of the Poor ["Ecologia: grito da Terra, grito dos pobres"], recently republished.

Check out the interview.

IHU On-Line - What's novel about the encyclical Laudato Si'?

Leonardo Boff - The absolute novelty is that the encyclical assumes the new contemporary paradigm under which everything forms a great whole with all interconnected realities, influencing each other. This moves it beyond the fragmentation of knowledge and gives great coherence and unity to the text. Not even the UN has produced a text of this nature.

IHU On-Line - What is the logical structure of Laudato Si'? What theories is the Pope defending in this encyclical and what is its main argument?

Leonardo Boff - The Pope is using the methodology that he himself explicitly included in the Aparecida document -- see, judge, act and celebrate. This method has the advantage of always starting from below, from the specific realities, from the real challenges, not from doctrines from which deductions are made, usually abstract and not very incisive when referred to the issues raised. The method requires us to look at incorporating the more certain data from the scientists and compose the actual framework of the most relevant issues.

In the judging, two movements are in process -- a scientific-analytical one and the other, theological. In this, the Pope was masterful -- he unmasks the illusory explanations of a certain type of intrasystemic science, where its ideological nature appears, usually for the benefit of the market and the dominant groups who consider social and ecological contradictions to be externalities that don't enter into business calculations. It is at this point that the impasse of the current situation and its inability to provide any solution except more of the same, is revealed.

The theological judging part is easier because there you're dealing with categories already known to theology. Even in that part, he makes the necessary corrections to the reductionism that has been done in the interpretation of the position of human beings within creation -- not as dominators, but as caregivers and guardians of the inheritance received from God. He explores the positive biblical times linked to creation and offers beautifully Jesus' example in relation to nature, birds, flowers, fields, harvests, at various moments.

In the act part, he draws from global governmental policies since the problem is global. For him, the North American motto -- one world - one empire -- isn't valid. But one world and one common project. He emphasizes small steps that come from below but bring seeds of the new.

In the celebrate part, he expands about ecological conversion and spirituality. This isn't derived so much from doctrine, but from the messages and inspiration that spiritual paths present for a proper relationship to creation, rather than to nature. The Pope's pedagogy is noteworthy -- he never gives prominence to the dark aspect of reality but emphasizes the human capacity to overcome difficulties and find beneficent solutions. In all issues, the poor are present, and he associates the cry of the earth with the cry of the poor, something that is emphasized a lot in Latin American thought.

IHU On-Line - What are the main theological concepts of Laudato Si' and how do they relate to Pope Francis' theology in general?

Leonardo Boff - The main theological concept is not looking so much at nature but at creation. It points to the Creator and is the expression of an act of love. He cites the beautiful phrase of the Book of Wisdom that "God is the sovereign lover of life." (11:26) Then, the concept of incarnation through which the Son didn't simply assume human nature, but the matter of the world and the world itself, referring to Teilhard de Chardin who developed this cosmic vision. He inserts Christ in the mystery of creation, citing the epistles to the Ephesians and the Colossians.

The resurrection is the transfiguration of the whole universe. He sees the world not as something to be solved, but to be admired and praised. The Triune God is eternal relationship, so all things are His resonance and are always related.

IHU On-Line - What worldview is the Pope, in a way, opposing? And what worldview does he suggest to readers of Laudato Si'?

Leonardo Boff - Consistent with his integral ecology, he sees the world as orders open to each other, all interconnected, which implies an evolutionary view of the universe, without saying the name and getting into that issue. He does highlight the uniqueness of the human being, bearer of signs of divinity with an ethical mission to take responsibility for creation. He sees the world as a common home, suggesting a sense of acquaintanceship.

He draws inspiration from Saint Francis to recall the brotherhood between men and women, of all beings, also brother sun, sister moon, brother river and all other beings. Here his poetic-mystical flight takes off. The Pope's vision is always positive and he tries to rescue whatever good there is. But he's strict in criticizing the assaults we have inflicted on the common home, the millions of poor who have been neglected, and he is against the consumer culture. He proposes shared sobriety.

IHU On-Line - In the part that talks about the "human roots of the ecological crisis," the Pope mentions that the crisis is a consequence of modern anthropocentrism, also drawing attention to the dangers of relativism. What do you think of the thesis that the cause of the ecological crisis is based on a human crisis?

Leonardo Boff - For the Pope, the root of the ecological crisis lies in technocracy. He distinguishes it from techno-science that has brought us so many benefits. But it degenerated into technocracy, a kind of technical dictatorship claiming to solve all environmental problems. He rightly criticizes this view because it isolates beings that have always been interlinked. By dissociating them, you can produce more harm than good. In this context, he addresses anthropocentrism since technocracy is human beings' weapon of domination over others and over nature.

It starts from the illusion that things are only ordered to human use, forgetting that every being has an intrinsic value, praises God in its own way and brings a particular message, as it is unique in the universe.

Anthropocentrism separates the human being from nature. He doesn't feel part of it and puts himself over it as a form of domination, breaking the universal brotherhood. That's why simple environmentalism is always anthropocentric, because it only looks at the human being -- his well-being -- and not the common good of all the other beings, inhabitants of the common home.

IHU On-Line - How does the degradation of the planet interface with the excluded - the poor, the elderly, the victims of the financialization of life, always cited so much in Francis' speeches? How does the Pope establish a connection between human degradation and that of the planet?

Leonardo Boff - In his integral ecology, he is looking at all the interconnected facts and phenomena. Hurting the Earth is hurting the human being who is also Earth, as the Pope says, citing Genesis. Productivist and consumerist greed produces two types of injustice -- one ecological, degrading ecosystems, and the other social, throwing millions of people into poverty and destitution. The Pope denounces this causal connection. So he proposes a paradigm shift in the relationship between all, which is more benevolent to nature and more just to humans and all other beings that inhabit the common home.

IHU On-Line - What is the concept of integral ecology, proposed by the Pope in Laudato Si'?

Leonardo Boff - This seems to me the main point of his theoretical and practical construct on ecology. I fear that it might not be understood by the great majority, mentally colonized only by the anthropocentric discourse of environmentalism, dominant in the media and unfortunately in the official discourse of governments and international institutions like the UN. As the new paradigm suggests, we all form a large and complex whole. There is a network of relationships that run through all beings, connect and reconnect all orders. The Pope repeats like a refrain that everything is related, that all beings, even the smallest, are involved in bonds of connection. Nothing exists out of relationship.

This implies understanding that economics has to do with politics, education with ethics, ethics with science. All related things help each other to exist, subsist and persist in this world. This view is absolutely new in the discourse of the Magisterium, still hostage to the old paradigm that separated, dichotomized, atomized and divided reality into compartments. Because of this distorted view, every problem had its specific solution, without realizing that its impact on other parts could be harmful.

The vision of integral ecology is systemic; it integrates everything into one great whole in which we move and have our being. The Pope makes this relationship connection of all with all derive from a theological fact. The Trinitarian God is essentially an eternal simultaneous relationship between the three divine persons. If the Triune God is relationship, then everything in the universe is also relationship.

IHU On-Line - The text of the encyclical also brings ideas from the laity. How are the ideas of science present in the encyclical? What is Francis' intention in this move of listening to science?Leonardo Boff - Pope Francis respects and listens to the sciences because they bring him the real ecological state of the world. We need to hear what they have to say. Without their contribution, the Church would have a narrow view and ineffective practice. The secular world is what cultivates scientific knowledge in particular. They should help the Christian community define the best approaches. A phrase of St. Thomas Aquinas is worth remembering here: Error in the knowledge of the world can lead us to error in the knowledge of God. Everything is related. The sciences in their way serve the Lord of all things.

IHU On-Line - Critics of Francis' text are claiming that the Pope wasn't neutral in his remarks on the subject. He was only listening to those who believe in the effects of global warming and not the aspect of science that is more skeptical of this view. How do you see Francis' stance?

Leonardo Boff - The Pope is simply telling us to look at the reality that is around us. Here we observe the devastation of the common home, the abuse of nature and especially the most vulnerable. We don't need a lot of science to realize that such inequities are the result of irresponsible human activity. We have so assaulted the Earth that it has lost its sustainability. To replace what we take from it in a year, it needs a year of work. Pope Francis didn't argue with the dissenting opinion, because today it has already been discredited by the scientific community and is refuted by the facts themselves, which are the extreme events that are occurring in all parts of the planet.

IHU On-Line - The encyclical cites excerpts from the encyclicals of Popes Paul VI, John Paul II and Benedict XVI, on ecology and other subjects, such as economics and inequality. How do the previous encyclicals relate to and dialogue with Francis' encyclical?

Leonardo Boff - The pronouncements of the previous Popes have never gotten to the key systemic point of the problem, which is that our way of inhabiting the common home is bringing countless discomforts to us and to our common home. But he does it to honor his predecessors. However, you can't overlook the fact of the Pope valuing the contributions of numerous national and continental conferences, from the most powerful such as the USA, to the simplest, such as Paraguay or Patagonia. The exercise of collegiality that the Pope says he wants to revive, is shown here.

I would say that the value of this encyclical isn't measured only by what it proposes, but by the teaching of the other bishops around the world. This is also a novelty of this pontificate, so innovative and surprising in many respects.

IHU On-Line - Francis himself points out that dealing with the subject of ecology is nothing new in his papacy. However, how does this expression by Bergoglio differ from the previous popes?

Leonardo Boff - Previous popes addressed ecology promptly. Now it is systematically within a bold new systems approach under the new paradigm, building, for almost a century now, from the life and Earth sciences, from the new cosmology, quantum physics and the new biology. In this, the Pope is absolutely innovative.

IHU On-Line - Some theologians have called attention to the fact that the encyclical doesn't refer to the great Eastern religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism. In your opinion, why wasn't this issue contemplated in Francis' encyclical?

Leonardo Boff - I think it's a void in the encyclical, because it's addressed to all humankind and he would have done well if he had honored Eastern wisdom, so rich in ecological perspectives. I don't know the reasons. But I believe he was reserving it for when he revisits the issue in the context of interfaith dialogue.

IHU On-Line - Is there a special intent in the fact that the Pope published the encyclical six months prior to the COP-21 in Paris? How does the document put the debate on the environment back on the public agenda?

Leonardo Boff - The encyclical is providential, especially as to the systemic method and in the span of integral ecology that has always been missing in these official meetings, some of which I myself have participated in. They don't have the slightest concept of a global vision, as if they hadn't yet discovered the Earth, only pieces of it, where national interests are rooted that always prevail over universal ones. If they don't seriously take an integral ecology view, the meetings will result in failure as has happened so far. All are flying blind and don't know where they're going. They just want to preserve their national interests and forget the global ones. Chesterton's humorous phrase applies: we're all in the same boat, and we're all seasick. Not everybody. Certainly not Pope Francis.

IHU On-Line - How do you think the text of the apostolic document should echo beyond the Vatican walls, in the Church throughout the world? And outside the Church, what should the impact be?

Leonardo Boff - I suppose that the impact will be huge because of the breadth of the approach and especially the new (for most) integral ecology perspective, valid for the entire planet, for its inhabitants, human or not. This time we don't have a Noah's ark, which included only a few. This time we must all save ourselves.

IHU On-Line - What kind of suggestions did you send to the Pope during the period when he was writing the encyclical? Which of these contributions were incorporated into the text?

Leonardo Boff - This question causes me embarrassment. The Pope has his body of experts and he consulted many people. The encyclical is his and not the collaborators'. With regard to Pope Francis' request, I sent through the Argentine ambassador to the Vatican -- otherwise there's the risk that it doesn't get there -- various materials and books, as I'd already been working intensely for 30 years on this integral ecology issue (I did a DVD for popular use on the four ecologies, where the last was integral ecology) and had especially delved into the subject of caring, of the common home, ethics and spirituality. Whether the Pope made use of these materials or not is not for me to say. I did my part as a simple useless servant, as the gospel says.

Sunday, June 21, 2015

Statement of the Permanent Council

Paris, Wednesday, June 17, 2015.

As the presence of migrants is creating growing tensions on the Italian border, at Calais, and Paris too, and with the coming of World Refugee Day on June 20th, the Permanent Council of the Bishops' Conference of France is launching a challenge on this issue that affects us all. At the same time, Msgr. Laurent Dognin, Msgr. Jacques Blaquart and Msgr. Renauld de Dinechin are addressing Catholics in France in the message: "Love therefore the immigrant, because you were immigrants in the land of Egypt." (Dt. 10:19).

Migrants: We are all affected

With ever-increasing intensity, the painful issue of migrants and refugees from Africa and the Middle East is being addressed to us.

For many reasons, often very tragic -- wars, poverty, climate disruption -- many are forced to leave their country where they can no longer live.

Many Catholics are already involved with their foreign brethren through hosting them, supporting them, and being concerned to give them decent living conditions.

We welcome this commitment and urge all Catholics in France to change their perspective, become close, overcome their prejudices and fears, and dare meeting.

It's not possible for us to withdraw into ourselves and ignore the misery of so many men, women and children around the world who seek only to live in dignity.

As did Pope Francis, we declare our "shame" in the face of what is happening in the Mediterranean as well as at Calais.

We must realize that this will unfortunately continue to worsen and that the whole national community, all of society is affected.

We urge our leaders to intensify international cooperation to meet the challenges. Europe must especially take responsibility and call its constituent countries to offer a real answer.

Message for Sunday, June 21, 2015

"Love therefore the immigrant, because you were immigrants in the land of Egypt." (Dt. 10:19)

For a change of outlook on migrants ... The recent dramas of migrants adrift in the Mediterranean and Andaman Sea have once again solicited our emotion and compassion. Men, women and children take extreme risks at sea in search of a safe haven, while traffickers and sometimes state authorities or armed forces behave with an inhumanity we thought was gone. Listening to the media disseminating scenes of horror throughout the world...

Let us remember...You were once exiles!

Many voices have expressed outrage at these events. It is good that this is so. We address here the Catholics of our country to invite them to step back in the face of these recent events, to change their outlook on migrants, to take action as citizens towards the authorities of the European Union who will meet on June 25th and 26th ...in short, not to be silent after legitimate emotion. By not letting emotions fall back down...

Let us remember...You were once exiles!

Migrants are not problems; they are men, women, children -- human beings. Migrants should not be seen primarily as a risk or a potential threat to national sovereignty. We must get out of an exclusively security or police view of the migration phenomenon. The social teaching of the Church is known. The human being must be at the center of our reflections. You can never exploit human beings. The sovereignty of a state is never absolute, for we must also take into account the wider common good that goes beyond any particular state. In challenging our states and European leaders ...

Let us remember...You were once exiles!

The issue must be defused -- France is a country of successful migrations. Everyone can find in their family history or in the history of migration signs of acceptance and successful integration. It's not about denying past or present difficulties. But basing ourselves on the success stories of migration to find what promotes acceptance, brotherhood, coexistence. Many fellow citizens have problems of unemployment, housing, exclusion, discrimination ... Migrants are not responsible for these social ills; they are victims, often more than other residents of the country. It's up to us to find ways of involving these migrants so that they can become part of the solution of our social ills. In celebrating the moments and methods of successful coexistence...

Let us remember...You were once exiles!

The number of migrants explodes when dealing with failed nations; there are hundreds of thousands, millions. Of these migrants from failed nations, France and the European Union welcome in only a small proportion. It's the neighbors of the failed nations that bear the brunt. It is the responsibility of the international community to help these "refugees" and restore the functioning of bankrupt nations.

The history of migration teaches us the importance of non-governmental players in the welcoming and support of migrants -- extended family, migrant associations, support groups, ethnic or national communities of belonging, religious communities, local authorities, local public services (school, work) ... We must take lessons from history for action today. By actively participating in the construction of a truly united world ...

Let us remember...You were once exiles!

It would be ideal obviously to promote cooperation between the society of origin and the host society, between migrant associations and the associations of origin ... we know the important role the various diasporas play in the world today, for the development and sometimes the survival of migrant communities of origin. By sharing the common wealth and multiplying partnerships with the most fragile...

Let us remember...You were once exiles!

We have not wanted to indicate miracle prescriptions for the management of migration. Because there are none. All exploitation of migrants is to be rejected; it is contrary to human rights, the foundations of our political order. It is contrary to the social teaching of the Church. The migrant is a human being first.

Let us remember...You were once exiles!

The generosity of the founding values of Europe can not ignore the fight against traffickers or the need for cooperation with countries of origin to promote the residents' stability.

We call for a change of perception on migrants ... and we suggest that on Sunday, June 21st, every community accompany its prayer with an act of welcoming, of sharing, fasting, a moment of silence, information. Let us remember...You were once exiles!

+ Laurent DOGNIN
Appointed Bishop of Quimper and Léon
Chairman of the Bishops Commission for the Universal Mission of the Church

+ Jacques BLAQUART
Bishop of Orléans
President of the Council for Solidarity

+ Renauld de DINECHIN
Auxiliary Bishop of Paris
Bishops Commission for the Universal Mission of the Church
Migrant Ministry

Ex. 23:9 : You are not to oppress the immigrant -- you know what his life is like because you too were immigrants in the land of Egypt. Dt. 10:19: Love therefore the immigrant, because you were immigrants in the land of Egypt.